Curriculum

We view the National Curriculum as a basic educational entitlement. As our schools are independent, they are not obliged to follow the strict requirements of the National Curriculum, but the majority go far beyond it.

For example, modern foreign languages, such as French, are often taught from an early age. Many of our schools also offer Latin and Greek to their pupils.

SATs

Aroung 20% of IAPS schools use Key Stage 2 SATs for 11-year-olds (Year 6 pupils). SATs provide a national, standardised benchmark for children when moving on to senior school at 11+ and for inspection/comparison purposes.

IAPS is opposed to the league tables of schools based on the narrow criteria of these tests. We believe that one of the great virtues of our schools is the breadth of the educational provision, both curricular and extra-curricular.

A range of assessment systems is available across the prep school age-range. Many of our schools feel that SATs are unnecessary and they gather assessment data in other ways. The Suffolk Reading test, BSTS and some aspects of PIPs are used alongside or in place of SATs. NfER tests are useful also. We suggest that our schools use a mix of summative assessment, measuring current performance, and formative assessment, informing future learning and contributing to target-setting.